The God Decrees

Devan Chronicles #1

by Mark E. Cooper

Set in a world of ancient warring kingdoms, The God Decrees follows Julia through Deva as that once powerful land comes to the end of its greatness. A feeble king now sits the throne of Deva, and traitorous lords scheme to take it from him. Only the lords of the four great fortresses remain vigilant and loyal to the kingdom. Deva seems doomed as the legions of the Protectorate march. Keverin, Lord of Fortress Athione and Lord Protector of the West, is desperate to save his people and the kingdom he serves from the sorcerers of the Protectorate. A champion is needed, a saviour strong enough to throw back the minions of the evil sorcerer Mortain, but where in all the worlds will he find such a man? In a small town in the south of England, great things are about to happen.

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Fiction, Wizards, Magic

313 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2003

About the author

Incursion: Merkiaari Wars 5 is out now (11/11/2016) http://www.impulsebooks.co.uk/incursion/

Mark E. Cooper lives alone in a small town in the south of England, where he writes most mornings and evenings. His background is in mechanical engineering where he spent over thirty years working for Ford. He loves reading about strong female characters and can often be found laughing to himself as he listens to a book on his iPod.

His hobbies include driving his cobra--a V12 monster he built with his best friend--reading fantasy and sci-fi, and maintaining his blog at http://www.impulsebooks.co.uk/markcoo...

He is now the author of more than eight titles in the genres he loves to read.

Reviews

[Kyra Halland · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kingdom of Deva, under attack by a kingdom of powerful sorcerers, is desperate for help, so one of Deva's few sorcerers risks everything to bring a powerful magician from another world to help out... a 19-year-old aspiring Olympic gymnast from our world named Julia. Who knows nothing about magic, and anyway, women aren't supposed to be able to use magic!

I'm usually not big on fantasy where someone from our world crosses into a fantasy world, but in The God Decrees, Julia's strangeness and the very fact that she's from a different world are key conflicts in the plot, so it works well. After some initial doubts (this must all be the result of hitting her head during a bad landing!), Julia adapts to her new situation with aplomb and sets about learning the magic her hosts desperately need her to be able to use, figuring that as long as she's there she might as well do something useful, an attitude I admire (plus learning magic might be the only way for her to get back home). And, what do you know, she CAN use magic even though she's a woman, which leads to a certain amount of political and religious crisis and intrigue on top of the invasion by the sorcerers.

Besides Julia, there's also Keverin, one of the Lord Protectors of Deva, whose stronghold Julia is brought to. He resents Julia for what it cost him to have her brought there, seemingly for nothing, then he comes to admire and depend on her - and even more. Mathius, a young and fairly inexperienced sorcerer, out of necessity becomes Julia's teacher and mentor and they end up learning and growing together. There's also Jihan, the son of a traitor to the kingdom, determined to defend the kingdom and his honor, and a number of other interesting characters, including some from the enemy side. The character development is a little thin, but there's enough of it that I found myself genuinely caring about what happened to them. I did appreciate the touch of developing romance, though I kind of wanted to shake Julia and tell her to get a grip when an angry misunderstanding sends her running away. A little more maturity would have helped her understand why the man involved did what he did. But then, she's only nineteen so I guess her reaction is understandable.

The story basically revolves around Keverin's people and some of the other Devan armies fending off attacks from different sides, all while knowing it's going to get much worse before it gets better. At some places I had trouble keeping up with what was going on, as though steps in action or reasoning were skipped, but again I was interested enough in what was happening to keep reading anyway.

I got this book as part of the eight-book box set Quest, and it's definitely one of the highlights of the collection.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book because a time travel fantasy has a lot of potential for a great read. The story isn't nearly as interesting as it should be due to the lack of character development. The characters lack individuality that differentiates them from each other. In addition, there is just not enough connection, memories, thoughts, emotions, "life" in the characters to really bring the reader into the story.

[Brant Peine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok but was obviously one of the author's earlier works. It has a lot of potential but was quite choppy in how it transitioned between scenes and people within the book. The world and characters are solid and the book has enough to get you through to the end while wondering what will happen in the later books.

I've read a couple of his other books and have seen enough of an improvement in his writing that I would recommend this author as someone to continue reading.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for an indie author. There was some odd pacing issues and some scenes that I had hard time figuring how much time had passed, but I liked the plot and characters. The talent is there, if a bit raw. I plan to read the next book in the series.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of the anthology "Quest: Eight Novels of Fantasy, Myth, and Magic".

I enjoyed this book a lot and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good fantasy read. The book is a bit of a redo of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" but original enough to stand on its own.

Without getting into spoilers I will say that I enjoyed the writing style and the characters in this book. It was also quite interesting to see how some of the characters changed throughout the novel. I look forward to the next book in the series to see where Julia ends up.

However, as with many books I have read lately, the editing needs work. There are too many missing or extra words, misspellings and misplaced punctuation. A good editing would take this book to the next level.

For people not used to British spellings please note that this novel is of British origin and things like colour and honour are NOT misspellings, but the British and Canadian standards for these words.

[Jack Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young contemporary woman, an Olympic Gymnast contender in her world, is summoned into the middle of a war in a medieval world by a dying wizard's last spell. I enjoyed the story line, the humor and style in this fast paced story. I'd comment that some work needs to be done on the editing in this book but that aside, I enjoyed the witty dialogue and interaction between Julia and Keverin, the lord of the keep, as she masters her inherent magic.
All in all, I thought the "God Decrees" had an interesting plot, was well presented and interesting enough to make me want to read Part 2.
Jack Murphy

[Janet Arroyo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julia

Wow, I really enjoyed this book. It had everything like magic, courageous battles, friendships, death and even love. Julia a promising Olympic gymnast was pulled from her life to another realm. There she met Kev and her magical experiences started. The storyline is AwEsOmE. I loved all the characters except for the evil sorcerers. This book is the start of a series and I can't wait to read the next one. I would recommend this book to everyone. Thank you Mark E. Cooper for my free e-book. Excellent job!

[Traci Loudin]

Part of a book set I'm trying to read. This is one of the few books where the theme seems a bit too on the nose for me. Female Olympic gymnast is brought to a typical patriarchal feudal-European fantasy setting where she has to deal with systemic sexism. And only dudes can be wizards, yet the person who teleported there sensed she was a great wizard (though apparently untrained since she's from our world). I got to Chapter 8 before losing interest in the characters.

[Brewergnome · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very stock world-transfer fantasy. Blah blah strong woman transported to feudal world where she's very powerful but women are "protected" and considered fragile because reasons. Woman is more powerful than anyone, falls in love with super rich super honorable dude, blah blah. Evil guys are super evil and look just how evil they are.

[Shaun Carney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The ideas were novel (no pun intended) and the characters very engaging. I purchased the next three books as soon as I finished the first... But I should have stopped with The God's Decree. Oh well, more in those under those titles.

[Topsues · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the sassy and good Witt attitude from the main character, I liked the foundation of the book, I found that there was so many characters from different parts of this world introduced into the story that I did get a bit lost, and really they wasn’t needed. The bones of the storyline was really good, personally I would have preferred more focus on the main characters, as certain situations they was forced into was moved away from to quickly, or maybe I’m just a romantic... the one thing it did have in bounds was action, magic, war, death, loneliness, abandonment, regret but also friendship, loyalty, love and determination. The emotions was written very well. So they was easy to feel. The plots moved around but again was easy to envisage. It was overall a good book, Ive only marked it down because i felt personally it needed more depth... i would definitely give book.2 a try and do hope I can give the next one more stars, because as a travellers fantasy it did have a uniqueness about it.

[Bill Clapie · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first (without spoilers) I thought it was going to be a silly read and was just going to drop it. Yep. First impression. I gave it a second chance and got into the characters as they were developed by Mr. Cooper. Very glad I did. He has a knack for brining out some character quirks that help swing the tale so-to-speak.

In short. Yep, great fire and flame and magic fantasy! Good stuff Mr. Cooper! I sent him a post to his author page and he wrote back that he was worried when I at first called it a "silly read" LMBO.

Keep cool Mr Cooper. It was good stuff. To the readers? Dive into a new world. I think you'll like it.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

DO NOT BUY THIS SERIES!

It’s unfinished ... in 2012 book 5 was apparently in the “outline stage” , in 2014 the author said “book 5 is coming out in 2017”, then in 2016 the author wrote “it hasn’t come out due to lack of reader interest in the series” .... so you’re wasting your money and your time if you buy this series as book 5 has been promised for years and it looks like those of us who have bought and paid for the first 4 books will never know how it ends ... the author should be pulling this series off the market instead of continuing to make money off a series that he is apparently not completing.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of the Quest book. I loved the story and the people. Imagine a young gymnast being torn from her world into a world of magic and that you are a natural mage. Her conflicting feeling on using it could have been a bit more, but it really didn't take away from the story. Over all, i enjoyed book one in this series and will most likely follow with number 2. As continuing further, I will have to see how 2 goes. from what I have read, there are 4 books in this series, completely doable.

[Erth · Rating 4 out of 5]

now i am hooked. This was such a great, easy and creative book. i was hooked after the first page.

The characters were easy to fall in love with and follow, along with the story. the author made the mental visions so easy and vivid of the surroundings and the characters actions felt so real.

i would highly recommend this author and this book.

[Eddie D. Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have listened to every book written by Mark E. Cooper, and I have enjoyed every single one of them. The narrator once again has done an awesome job. Unfortunately, I now have to wait for the author to write another book.

[Yasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
This book has an amazing story and it's going in good direction but the fact that it has a good (or bad, depending on this sentence) amount of awkward jumps in character and plot development, takes away from the overall enjoyment.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice book.
I have to be honest, the misspellings were a lot in this book, but that didn't stop it from being an amazing book. My mind has a lot to say about this book, both good and bad. Unfortunately I can't put them into words.
Overall it was a good read that I enjoyed.
Thank you for this book

[Roxy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant set plot.

A saga has started with this book. A saga worth reading. I like the characters introduced and seeing how they evolve. There's a lot of interesting sections which hint at the next book without upsetting the current read. Very enjoyable.

[Crys · Rating 1 out of 5]

It started out good with a high price for magic.
However in case of the hero, magic is limitless, does not need to be taught, reading a little in a book is enough, there is no or little fatigue for using it and the price does not exist.

Magic like that breakes any book.

[Aqsa Ishaq · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found it really good and enjoyable. It had me on the edge of my seat that I just couldn't put it down

[Nayavil · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Game of Thrones

[Volpot · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. so-so

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book

[Keith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another day, another terrible free fantasy e-book. This must be one of the worst, equalling Morgan Rice and approaching the infamous Robert Stanek in its wilful disregard for basic editing and storytelling common sense. Many of the typical fails of authors who use a spellchecker as their only editor are here - missing commas, inexplicable changes in tense, etc. There are also some really poor nomenclature decisions that can easily lead to confusion, like having a castle called Athione and a separate character called Athlone, or several Lord Protectors in a country fighting an evil empire called the Protectorate.

The worst aspects of the book for me, however, were the pacing, the associated nonsensical behaviour and the constant cutting to new characters. For instance, the heroine is summoned to the Obligatory Medieval Fantasy World by a mage looking for a more powerful mage to stop a siege. When she arrives, it's assumed something has gone wrong (not unreasonably, since there are no female mages), but no-one bothers to test or question this newcomer, even to see if she's a threat. She's just left to banter with the guards, go to sleep, wake up amid bombardment and then ignore it to have a long chat with the lady of the castle about how she met her husband. Even when it's revealed that (surprise surprise) she actually is a mage, this doesn't cause immediate amazement and every available mage rushing to test her and see how powerful she is (spoiler: her power level is over 9000). The only vaguely plausible explanation for this is extreme sexism, but none of the characters around her really act that sexist in any other way. All this faffing about breaks the tension of the siege, as does cutting away to largely pointless scenes of the villains and a subplot.

Also, and this is a major pet peeve of mine, I could guess almost immediately who the love interest was going to be - even though there was a character who the heroine had a seemingly better rapport with, naturally the author went down the super-obvious route (as I discovered when I skipped ahead to confirm my suspicions). Yawn.

To call this book amateurish would be to insult people who put far more effort, thought and emotion into writing purely for enjoyment. It has, like many of these dire fantasy e-books, all the hallmarks of a first draft cranked out with minimal editing. Avoid.

[Phyllis Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It is an easy read.

It's written along the formula of young adult , Julia, (she is 19) finding herself suddenly transported to another world/universe where she now gains magic powers- that she has no idea what to do with because in her world magic doesn't exist. She finds herself in the middle of a war- medieval technology plus magic. And in this world only men have the ability to wield magic! The "quest" here is to stay alive by helping to win the war until she can find a way to return to her world. Meanwhile there is the ever predictable "love interest" that comes with a female lead character/male lead character, as well as with a secondary "companion" set of female and male characters.

The story line holds together quite well and the writer was able to keep the magic aspects "scientific"- that is that there are rules, bounds, and methods to it. The internal continuity is good as well.

I will read further books in the series when I get the opportunity to do so.

[Birgit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young contemporary woman is drawn into the middle of a war in a medieval world by a dying wizard's last spell - the way this story was told, the humour and style, made up the balance for the sometimes horrible editing (words missing, or too many words, like copy-and-paste gone wrong). The dialogues, especially between the lord of the keep and Julia, are witty and reflect the differences in language development (although it was never quite explained how they all spoke some sort of English, huh?)
All in all, a quite interesting plot, well presented, and interesting enough to make me get the further volumes.

[Jonathan Shaffer · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading some of Cooper's other fiction I have come to the conclusion that he creates rich worlds and interesting characters, but he doesn't give them much life. All of the characters think and speak too similarly. The weak, the strong, the women, the men, the scifi, and the fantasy characters all use the same speech patters and after a while, it starts to feel stale.

There were also paragraphs were he switched from past tense to present and that's just no good.

[Deedra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an epic tale of magic and war.A girl is transported from her 21st century home to a world where a powerful mage is needed,and so it goes.
This book is well written.The storyline,while familiar takes fresh turns and keeps ones interest.The narrator,Mikael Naramore did a wonderful job with the material.His voices and sound effects were spot on.

[Katie Stenzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book! I haven’t been able to put it down! The words drew me into the story, but the plot itself is beyond what I imagined at first. Everytime I turned to the next chapter, I was introduced and re-introduced to different characters, which in the process introduced me to a broad world.